Refund & Cancellation Policy

1. Commercial Scope and Context Northwind Studio provides bespoke software engineering, artificial intelligence development, cloud architecture, and technical consulting services to commercial businesses, product teams, and startups.#

Unlike consumer retail goods or off-the-shelf software subscriptions, our professional services involve dedicated senior engineering time, custom architectural design, and tailored milestone delivery governed by executed Statements of Work (SOWs).

2. Milestone Deliverables and Formal Acceptance Our project engagements are structured around clear, agreed-upon milestone deliverables:#

• Acceptance Window: Upon delivery of each project milestone, the client is granted a formal acceptance review period (typically 5 to 10 business days, as defined in the SOW) to inspect and verify the deliverables against agreed specifications.
• Milestone Approval: Written approval, merge of pull requests into the client repository, or deployment to production signifies formal milestone acceptance.
• Non-Refundable Invoiced Milestones: Once a milestone has been reviewed, approved, and settled, milestone payments are non-refundable as they represent delivered, accepted engineering work.

3. Project Cancellation and Termination Notice Either party may terminate an ongoing client engagement pursuant to the termination provisions of their executed Master Services Agreement or SOW:#

• Standard Notice Period: Engagements typically provide for termination upon 14 to 30 days written notice to the other party.
• Settlement of Incurred Work: Upon receipt of termination notice, work ceases promptly. The client remains responsible only for payment covering completed milestones and authorized billable engineering hours incurred up to the effective termination date.
• Handover of Work Product: All completed source code, architectural designs, documentation, and work-in-progress created up to the termination date are handed over to the client upon settlement of the final pro-rata invoice.

4. Upfront Deposits and Discovery Retainers - **Scoping & Discovery Retainers:** Fixed-price architectural discovery engagements cover comprehensive technical roadmapping and are non-refundable once the discovery workshop and deliverables are completed. - **Project Deposits:** Initial project deposits required to schedule dedicated engineering pods are credited directly against the first project delivery milestone.#

5. Retainer and Dedicated Pod Cancellation For clients engaging rolling monthly engineering pods or support retainers:#

• Retainers may be cancelled with 30 days written notice prior to the commencement of the subsequent billing cycle.
• Partial-month retainers already commenced are non-refundable to account for pre-allocated engineering staffing.

6. Commercial Questions For questions regarding client invoicing, milestone sign-offs, or agreement terms, contact our commercial operations team at [sales@northwindstudio.tech](mailto:sales@northwindstudio.tech).#